The invention is generally related to firearm safety, and in particular, to the prevention of unauthorized and/or unintended discharge of a firearm.
Firearms such as handguns, hunting rifles, shotguns and other weapons have a number of lawful uses, including self-defense, hunting, law enforcement and military uses. However, due to the extremely dangerous nature of firearms, a significant concern also exists as to other, improper uses of firearms. Criminals may use firearms in the commission of crimes, either discharging the firearms to injure or kill, or in the least, using firearms to threaten others. A concern also exists as to accidental discharges of a firearm, as well as to dangers to children that find unattended firearms in the home. Many schools also have a problem with students occasionally bringing guns to school, posing a risk to themselves, other students and school employees.
Significant efforts have been devoted to minimizing the risks associated with improper usage of a firearm. A number of gun manufacturers, for example, provide mechanical trigger locks that prevent actuation of a firearm when installed. Often, however, trigger locks are cumbersome to operate, and may be difficult to remove, which many firearm owners perceive as diminishing the value of the firearm for the purpose of self-defense. As a result, many owners opt against installing trigger locks on their firearms, thus defeating the utility of manufacturer-provided locks.
Various xe2x80x9csmart gunxe2x80x9d technologies have also been developed and proposed to automatically control the discharge of a firearm. Biometric controls such as fingerprint sensors have been proposed to restrict discharge of a firearm only to an authorized person having a fingerprint pattern stored in the firearm. Personal area transmitters have also been proposed, e.g., disposed on a ring or other piece of jewelry worn by a gun owner that would permit actuation of a firearm only when the firearm is capable of receiving a short-range signal from the transmitter.
While conventional xe2x80x9csmart gunxe2x80x9d technologies address a number of the concerns associated with improper firearm usage, additional concerns still remain. For example, an authorized owner or operator of a firearm is still capable of using the firearm for unlawful purposes. As such, an authorized owner of a firearm could use a firearm in a bank or government building if he or she so desired. In addition, firearms that are required to be within receiving distance of a transmitter could still be actuated if an unauthorized person was also able to obtain the transmitter from the authorized owner.
It has also been proposed to provide anti-firing systems within firearms that disable the firearms whenever the firearms are within a certain distance of a transmitter. By placing a transmitter in a bank, government building, or other area for which is desirable to prevent discharge of a firearm, any firearm having a receiver capable of receiving the transmitted signal would be automatically disabled. Providing a workable system that incorporates such technology, however, would be extremely expensive and require a large number of transmitters to be installed at a multitude of locations, as well as existing firearms abandoned in favor of new designs incorporating the required receivers.
Therefore, a significant need continues to exist in the art for an improved firearm discharge prevention system that restricts improper usage of a firearm, in particular, in a manner that is simpler, less expensive, and more flexible than conventional technologies.
The invention addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art by providing a firearm, program product and method in which an on-board location sensor and stored location information are collectively utilized to selectively inhibit discharge of a firearm based upon its current location. Location information identifying one or more prohibited locations is stored in the firearm (typically in an on-board memory). A controller on-board the firearm then accesses the location sensor to determine a current location for the firearm, and selectively inhibits the discharge of the firearm if the current location is proximate any prohibited location.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawings, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described exemplary embodiments of the invention.